What size files are you using for your Wedding pics: Learning about Wedding photography, plan on working as as assistant this year, any help would be great Thanks in advance...

Paris Hanson

Learning about Wedding photography, plan on working as as assistant this year, any help would be great

Thanks in advance

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

Your question makes little sense and suggests you are totally green. I applaud your initiative to gather intel but when it comes to wedding photography, self taught is not a good thing. Learn from your first shooter and pick the bones clean, then you can go on to another and expand your circle of knowledge. Eventually you will develop your own style, a combination of previously learned techniques that will set you apart from the rest. It's not a quick process, although many try and wonder why they aren't succeeding like they thought they would, but the end result is, oh, so satisfactory. Take your time, wax on, wax off....

Paris Hanson

Maybe this will make it more clear, are you using Large Medium, Small Raw files? My guess is you are not shooting JPEG or TIFF files, I may be green to wedding photography but not photography, that's why I am trying to learn on the section called Wedding Photography, respect is both earned and received

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

Paris Hanson wrote:

Learning about Wedding photography, plan on working as as assistant this year, any help would be great

Thanks in advance

Because you never know when a customer will want any particular image to be blown up for a very large wall picture it is best to always shoot in large RAW format. Cameras do not shoot in TIFF, but the raw file can be later converted to TIFF if necessary.

superpijak Loc: Middle TN

Weddingguy nailed it Paris.

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

Yes, that makes it clear and I agree with weddingguy. If you are shooting for someone else and being paid you ALWAYS want the most information saved cause you never know when the request for a whopper will hit your books. Easy to throw away excess data but not so easy to create it after the fact.

Paris Hanson

Thanks for the help, I have been shooting Raw large anyway, This info lets me know to have at least (3) 32gb cards for the day, there is so much to learn if you are going to do it right, who better to ask than those who do it for a living

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

Paris Hanson wrote:

Thanks for the help, I have been shooting Raw large anyway, This info lets me know to have at least (3) 32gb cards for the day, there is so much to learn if you are going to do it right, who better to ask than those who do it for a living

Speaking of memory cards . . . I am still from the old school and would rather have 6 - 16GB cards than 3 - 32GB cards. Murphy's law is alive and well and cards can get corrupted or lost, or even accidently formatted. In that very odd case . . . how many images, or what percentage of your shots are you willing to give up?? I actually still carry about 6 8GB cards at all times.
I'm from the Rollei days of shooting 12 - 2 1/4 square negatives, then changing film for another 12 shots. Changing out 8GB cards is faster and a piece of cake to me.

Paris Hanson

I can get about 500 shots out of a 32 GB card, I also carry a 16gb card, I have heard pros and cons of bigger vs smaller cards, I might go to 16gb cards but I don't know if I would go any smaller, I really appreciate your help, I will be reading this section regularly and look forward to reading your posts

superpijak Loc: Middle TN

Paris - You'll also discover the wisdom of having back up equipment

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

Paris Hanson wrote:

Learning about Wedding photography, plan on working as as assistant this year, any help would be great

Thanks in advance

This thread could easily become a "WEDDING IDEA CORNER"!

We carry loads of batteries and memory cards. Our routine is as follows . . .

First shoot of the day is at the bride's home (or where ever she will be getting dressed) As soon as we are finished there we immediately change batteries in the cameras, flash guns and change the memory cards . . . regardless of the status of the cards or batteries.

The next shoot of the day could be the church, or in some cases the formals of at least the bride, groom and bridal party. We start this shoot with fresh batteries in everything and fresh, newly formatted, memory cards. When that shoot is complete we change up batteries and memory cards again so that we start each part of the wedding day with fresh everything. The result is never missing an important shot because of a full card or a dead or low battery!

Used memory cards are kept in a separate card wallet , from both my camera and my second shooter's camera, in my pocket. If any of my equipment gets stolen or lost, at least I will not lose this wedding!

We never fill a card or run a battery all the way down!

Paris Hanson

WOW, that is great advice, I will have to rethink the CF card memory, Do you think 8gb cards are the way to go? I will be investing in batteries as well, I have a Canon 7D as a backup, 7D markII is my main camera with plans for a 5D markIV, this way I can have a backup to the backup, I also plan on using using an SD card and recording that separate from the CF card, can't thank you enough for the advice, I know I have a long way to go but I have a passion for the candid shots, two families invite you into one of the biggest days of their lives, you only get one chance to tell the story of that day in pictures, my goal is to have them look back in the later years and be able to re-live that day from looking at the pictures and anyone else looking at it as well, thanks again

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

Weddingguy wrote:

Because you never know when a customer will want any particular image to be blown up for a very large wall picture it is best to always shoot in large RAW format. Cameras do not shoot in TIFF, but the raw file can be later converted to TIFF if necessary.

Don't shoot in TIFF ????? How about Nikons D8xx series and Nikon's Dx (like D2, D3x,.....D5) series. They all have the option of the TIFF Format. I presume that Canon has several models, also. Probably several other brands offer it in some of their models, eh ?

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

rfmaude41 wrote:

Don't shoot in TIFF ????? How about Nikons D8xx series and Nikon's Dx (like D2, D3x,.....D5) series. They all have the option of the TIFF Format. I presume that Canon has several models, also. Probably several other brands offer it in some of their models, eh ?

Interesting . . . I didn't know that. None of the Canons that I own offer TIFF as an option. Thanks for the head's up . . . that's what I love about photography . . . no matter how long you pursue it you never get to know it all!

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

Paris Hanson wrote:

WOW, that is great advice, I will have to rethink... (show quote)

16GB are fine too . . . just have more of them. As for more cameras, probably two are enough. I would be more concerned with the lenses you carry. I carry two cameras . . . one with a 24-70 F/2.8L and the second one with the 70-200 F/2.8L IS. They back up each other and I never change lenses on the go. Both are always ready to shoot.